Payment account monitoring system and method
AssigneeEarly Warning Services, LLC
InventorPaul Finch
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A network includes an account status system for checking the status of checking accounts used to make payments, and a payment account monitoring system that includes linking files that store, for individual credit card accounts, the account numbers for checking accounts used to pay the credit card accounts. The monitoring system periodically retrieves checking account numbers from the linking files and checks the account numbers at the status system. If a negative status is indicated at the status system, an alert is provided to the credit card company.
Claims32
A computerized method for monitoring a status of a payment account against which a recurring payment has been drawn for payment to a recipient from a payer, the method comprising:
- providing, as part of a computer system, a status database that stores updated status information on payment accounts, the status database operated by or on behalf of an entity other than the recipient or the payer;
- providing, as part of the computer system, a monitoring file that stores a plurality of recipient account numbers and a plurality of payment account numbers, and that associates at least one of the plurality of recipient account numbers to at least one of the plurality of payment account numbers;
- receiving, at the computer system, a recipient account number and a payment account number from the recipient in response to a payment toward a recurring payment from the payer to the recipient;
- determining whether the received payment account number is a new payment account number and is different than a payment account number previously stored in the monitoring file in association with the recipient account number;
- upon determining that the received payment account number is a new payment account number and is different than a payment account number previously stored in the monitoring file, updating the monitoring file in response to the payment toward a recurring payment, via the computer system, by storing the received payment account number, as the new payment account number, in association with the received recipient account number in the monitoring file;
- and
- subsequent to and independently of said updating of the monitoring file, periodically accessing, via the computer system, the status information stored in the status database using the at least one of the plurality of payment account numbers stored in association with the at least one of the plurality of recipient account numbers in the updated monitoring file, wherein said periodic access occurs prior to a due date for an expected recurring payment.
A computer system for monitoring a status of payment accounts against which recurring payments are drawn as payments by a payer for a benefit of a creditor, the system comprising:
- a status database at an account status system that stores status information on payment accounts, the status information comprising an account status and/or an account condition associated with each of the payment accounts, the status database operated by or on behalf of an entity other than the payer or the creditor;
- a monitoring file at a monitoring system that associates at least one creditor account identifier to at least one payment account identifier, wherein the association between the at least one creditor account identifier and the at least one payment account identifier is updated when a creditor account identifier and a payment account identifier are received by the monitoring system in response to a payment toward a recurring payment from the payer to the creditor and upon determining that the received payment account identifier is a new payment account identifier that is different than the payment account identifier previously associated with the same creditor account identifier, said update including storing the received payment account identifier, as the new payment account identifier, in association with the received creditor account identifier in the monitoring file;
- and
- a processor configured to periodically access, via the status database, the status information using the at least one payment account identifier stored in association with the at least one creditor account identifier in the updated monitoring file, wherein said periodic access occurs subsequent to and independently of said update to the monitoring file and prior to a due date for an expected recurring payment, and configured to send a notification to the creditor if the status information has changed for the at least one payment account identifier stored in association with the at least one creditor account identifier in the updated monitoring file.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.